Man I'm sorry but that made me laugh my butt off! That totally is a fatherly thing to do, my old man would have done the same thing.... If your gonna kill it, it better be to eat or to stop it from eating your food- ex. the rabbit or squirrel or deer that is ravaging your garden..And im sure if he'd killed the deer eating his garden instead of poppin him in the butt with a pelletto run him off we'd have been processin him the shed like it were deer season.. I shot a woodpecker one time and pops got real pissed and his reasoning was similar, but like you I was just a kid with an air rifle and had no idea what I was doing other than just killin another bird, but at least he didnt make me try and eat it